at my journey should have
occupied nigh upon two days, for it was not until the afternoon of the
second day that I came within sight of a boat, drawn up on the beach,
which I knew to belong to the pirates, and from which the crew had gone
into the thickets, either to search for game or for water.

I had eaten nothing all that day, for I had not thought that my journey
would have taken me so long, and I did not care to burden myself with
any more food than necessary. So I was glad to see the boat, not only
being very weary, but also having my feet so badly blistered by the
unwonted exposure to the hot sun on the bare sand that it was only with
pain that I could take a single step.

As I drew nigh, two fellows who had been lying in the shade upon the
further side sprang to their feet and hailed me.

"Who are you?" says one of them--a great black-bearded fellow with a
dirty yellow handkerchief tied around his head, a ragged scarf about his
loins, a brace of pistols hanging from a leathern belt, and a dirty
shirt opened at the breast, showing a hairy throat and chest.

"I am Captain John Mackra," said I, and I sat down upon the gunwale of
the boat, for I could go no farther.

[Illustration: "I AM CAPTAIN JOHN MACKRA," SAID I, AND I SAT DOWN UPON
THE GUNWALE OF THE BOAT.]

"The devil you are!" says he, and he stared at me from top to toe as
though I had been some strange creature the like of which he had never
beheld before. Then, without another word, he put his fingers to his
lips and gave a great, long, shrill whistle. I presently heard a great
crackling in the bushes and the noise of loud voices, and soon there
burst out of the thickets six or eight great, bearded, dirty, villanous
rascals, who came running down to the boat, having caught sight of me,
and knowing me to be a stranger. "It's Captain Leach," said the one of
the pirates who had not yet spoken--a young fellow of not more than
twenty.

Some of those who had just come had been drinking, as could be very
plainly seen from the way in which they acted. One of them was for
killing me off-hand, and I verily believe would have done so, in spite
of all that the others could do or say, had not another of them knocked
him down with an oar with such a blow that I thought at first the fellow
had been killed outright.

After that they bound me hand and foot, and chucked me into the
stern-sheets of the boat along with the fellow who had been knocked down
by the oa